Lightning Facts

It is estimated that on average, each airplane in the U.S. commercial fleet is struck lightly by lightning more than once each year. In fact, aircraft often trigger lightning when flying through a heavily charged region of a cloud.

The Fourth of July is historically one of the most deadly times of the year for lightning in the U.S.

A flash of lightning could power a light bulb for a month.

In March of 1991, a single six hour storm stretching over Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri caused more than 15,000 lightning strikes.

Temperatures in the path of a lightning bolt can reach as high as 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That is 5 times hotter than the surface of the Sun.

Every year, the Earth experiences an average of 25 million lightning strikes during some 100,000 thunderstorms. That’s more than a hundred lightning bolts per second.

Lightning hits the Empire State Building (NY, USA) about 23 times a year.

On February 11, when Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation, lightning struck the Vatican twice.

The state of Florida holds the title of the “Deadliest State.” There are twice as many lightning casualties as in any other state. 10% of all people struck by lightning were in Florida at the time.

Men constitute 80% of lightning strikes on humans.

About 71% of all people struck by lightning survive.

Park ranger Roy Sullivan holds the Guiness Book of world records for being struck by lightning seven times between 1942 and 1977 and surviving.

Golfer Lee Trevino has been struck by lightning twice.

Rodeo clown, Gary Wagner was struck by lightning twice in the same day.

A lightning flash is no more than one inch wide.

The annual odds of being struck are about 576,000 to 1. The annual odds of being killed are about 2.32 million to 1. In other words, one in 87,000 bolts hits someone, one in 345,000 bolts kills someone.

July is the most dangerous month.

3 p.m. is the most dangerous time of day, it is five times more dangerous than 9 a.m.

Being afraid of lightning is referred to as astraphobia, and the science of lightning is called fulminology.

44,000 lightning storms occur every day throughout the world.

Lightning strikes the earth 6,000 times a minute.

Radar has detected Lightning "Crawlers" traveling at high altitudes (15000 ft to 20000 ft) as they zap from cloud-to-cloud.

The village of Kifuka in Central Africa is the most struck place on Earth with 158 stikes per square kilometer each year.

The State with the least lightning strikes is Washington,the manufacturing home of Boeing.

Lightning can spread out some 60 ft. upon striking earth's surface.

Lightning causes an average of 200 deaths and 700 injuries in the United States each year. More than hurricanes and tornados combined.

Lightning occurs on Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Uranus.

You have a better chance of surviving a lightning strike in wet clothes because the electricity wil travel around you.

Talking on a land line phone during a storm is the leading cause for indoor lightning injuries.

About 10,000 forest fires a year are started by lightning.

In 1789 in Brescia Italy, lightning ignited 90 tons of gun powder killing 3000 people and destroying 1/6 of the city.

An average bolt of lightning is 2 to 6 miles long. The longest observed bolt was in Dallas –Ft. Worth and was 118 miles long.